Since it takes a very long time (sometimes up to 10 - 15 minutes) for Shutting Down, using the proper procedure (with the mouse); I'm finding myself Shutting Down by pressing the "ON/OFF" button switch on the QuickSilver's tower, more often.

Why do you think it takes so very long to do routine tasks and to shut down, and what can I do about it?

Sincerely,
Angel

ANSWER: The hard drive can be failing or choked with large cache files, or more likely the directory is corrupt.
Start with one of the other drives and repair the drive and repair the permissions. in Disk Utility.
A good option is to install AppleJack (does not work properly on Lion or MLion)
With Applejack you start in Single User Mode (Command + S) and type "applejack auto restart"
Applejack runs scripts that will Fix Hard Drive, Repair Permissions, Clean Caches, Reset Memory, and Check Plists.
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/15667/applejack

The other options include Onyx and Yasu (both free) that can do many repairs but not Disk Repair.
ONYX https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx
YASU https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/13416/yasu

Starting up in Safe Mode will do the Disk Repair (SHIFT key down)
https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564

The directory on the HD may be too damaged for Disk Utility to fix, DiskWarrior is wonderful and well worth $100.

My 2nd Slave was originally running on OS X 10.5, and it restarted and shut down almost instantly when I used the proper procedure with the mouse. But when I updated to 10.5.8, the proper restart and shut down took longer.

My 3rd Slave runs on OS 10.4.11 Tiger, and it restarts and shuts down almost instantly.

Question: When 2nd Slave was fully updated to 10.5.8 Leopard, why would it take longer to process normal routine tasks?